Famous brands, Western prices and quality. These ingredients are turning ski and snowboard shops into businesses worth above 60,000 euros.
Iulian Tache, managing partner with H2O, launched his sports business in 1992. He decided to invest in such a business after he noticed the lack of quality equipment during his student days. Meanwhile, he also took to organising sporting events and competitions, thus setting up his second business, practically a BTL agency-H2O Sport Events. The next step was "the opening of a shop mainly selling snowboarding gear, so as to offer customers the equipment they needed," recounts Tache.
H2O Coffee Shop was born from the desire to create a community meeting space and a meeting space for sportsmen. Projects did not stop here, though. A complementary business developed within this brand was an extreme sports portal.
Whereas investments amounted to $3,000 in the first year, another 50,000-100,000 euros have been invested meanwhile. Turnover witnessed exponential growth due to operated investments. However, Tache cannot speak of real profit. Despite similar or even lower product prices compared with European levels, profit was lower than the one derived by foreign shops because of taxes.
Ski and snowboard sales make up about 50% of overall sales, with the highest weight registered during the season. H2O shops also offer related services, such as snowboard and ski repair. Another business in the domain of extreme sports is operated by David Neacsu, owner of G.D.Escapade firm and of Himalaya shop, selling mountain sporting goods. He had gained experience in the domain since 1982, when he attended a guide school. In 1991, he opened an international guide school and an alpinism school.
He opened the first shop in 1994 in Bucharest. As the offering diversified, they moved to the current location in 1998, where they have two shops arranged in line with their own ideas. He invested 100,000 dollars in arranging the place in 1998 and at present the sum stands at 1 million euros.
Beside the Himalaya shop in Bucharest, Neacsu granted 2 franchises, in Brasov and Cluj. Himalaya works with Romanian firms, from which it buys various pieces of equipment and it is also the sole distributor for 24 internationally renowned brands. Sales rose by some 20% each year.
On short term, Neacsu plans to open another Himalaya shop in Bucharest.
Another firm in the domain is A.A. Investment, having operated on the market for two years as the official importer of Billabong Shop Australian brand. The initial investment stood at some 20,000 euros.
The value of imports amounts to 200,000 euros. The first year, 2005, did not bring a very high profit, but in 2006 the firm posted 60,000-euro profit.
The firm plans to open Billabong Shop outlets in Cluj, Brasov and Constanta.
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